


Gisela and Rudolf

by AspiringWriter555



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 02:52:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AspiringWriter555/pseuds/AspiringWriter555
Summary: Rudolf still has nightmares. His sister comes to help him. She's sturdy, he's fragile, but they still need each other.





	Gisela and Rudolf

**Author's Note:**

> 'Elisabeth' belongs to Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze

It was midnight. It was winter. And in the palace of the Habsburgs, all were asleep, except one girl. The eldest surviving daughter of the Emperor Franz Joseph and his ever-mysterious wife Elisabeth, Gisela. She couldn’t sleep whenever she heard it. Him.  
Her brother. Screaming, gasping, almost fighting for air in his room. He’d always been anxious. But even after he’d begun to get better he would still have these nightmares. She’d thought someone would come. Where was everyone? He was the Crown Prince, there would be someone. Where were they? Where was everyone?  
The Princess began to wonder if this was a nightmare of her own. If everyone had left her and there was only herself and his voice. Her little brother, her playmate in the happy days of the nursery before he was dragged away from her in tears to become a man, before he was placed in care of that man who tried to kill him. Now he was frightened and no-one was there for him. Was there no one else? There can’t be, there were always people here, people she didn’t even know, people she didn’t even like. It can’t be that no one was there  
But if it was….. then no-one could stop her from getting out of bed.  
She slipped out of bed. She crept to the door. There was no-one. She hurried down the corridor, quietly as she could. She was a sturdy child, but it was difficult to run without making a single noise.  
She was at his room. She opened the door, and there was her nine-year old brother, thrashing and crying in his bed. Her little heart broke at the sight and she scrambled onto his bed, trying to hold his shoulders still.  
“Rudolph…wake up! Wake up! It’s me!”  
His eyes opened but he still struggled. She shook him slightly and repeated “It’s me. It’s Gisela.”  
He stared at her wide-eyed and shaking, then with a sob threw his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him and started to rock him.  
“It….it was Count Gondrecourt again, he…..he was yelling……he hit me….he tried to drown me……it was all so cold and I couldn’t breathe…..”  
“Sssshhhhh, sshhhhhh. It’s alright. It’s over, he’s gone now, Mama sent him away, he’s not going to hurt you anymore.” She nearly shuddered at the memory of how sick her brother had been only a few years ago. They, everyone, were afraid he’d died, but they’d only told the Count to work harder on him, that he needed to make him strong.  
“Why……why did Papa send me to him? Why does Papa hate me?” his sobs grew quieter. He could always ask his older sister anything. She was his best friend. She’d always been there for him. He wanted to go back to the nursery day with her, their Nursemaid and their ‘Aja’, Broness von Welden. He was happy then. He was allowed to be a child then. His sister pulled him closer to her. He sniffled into her nightgown, but she didn’t mind.

“Papa doesn’t hate you. He didn’t know what Count Gondrecourt was doing to you, he just wanted you to be ready for when you become Emperor. He didn’t know what he was doing to my poor little baby brother.”

He pulled his head away from her. “I’m not a baby!!”  
She smiled. “Then what are those big baby tears doing rolling down those chubby little baby cheeks?”  
He half smiled but still chocked back a sob. She pulled him back to her and his arms tangled themselves around her shoulders again. “Don’t worry. Mama sent him away. He’s going to hurt you anymore. Those bad dreams will go away soon.” She paused. She’d heard a doctor say that once to her father. That was a year and a half ago. What if they never went away? But she couldn’t tell him that. She knew him. She was his best friend. He needed her. He needed comfort. He needed love. More than anything he needed love. 

He sniffed back the dribble of snot that was beginning to run down from his nose. “I…..want……Mama.”

Gisela thought of their mother. A beautiful young woman she hardly saw. A woman who barely spoke to her. She’d heard stories about how her mother had wanted to be with her when she was a baby. She’d heard stories of an older sister who died. She tried to remember that sister but she couldn’t, only the special chair she could suddenly sit in. She’d heard of a battle between her mother and her grandmother, a strict old lady who rarely smiled but still showed an interest in her grandchildren. She thought of the last time they’d seen their mother. Such a lovely face, such beautiful hair. Rudolph had called out to her but someone pulled him back. She’d smiled and had walked away. Rudolph looked broken-hearted. Gisela had felt sad and alone. 

“I know. I want Mama too.”  
Two children huddled together, alone in a great palace.

**Author's Note:**

> Just thought I'd have a go with this. By all accounts they were very close growing up, and both were largely overlooked by Elisabeth - Marie Valerie was the only child she felt was really hers because she was the first child of hers that Sophie hadn't essentially taken away from her.


End file.
